Page:Sketches by Mark Twain.djvu/255

Rh "Come in!!"

"I have called to say that your credit in our bank, some time since unfortunately interrupted, is entirely and most satisfactorily restored, and we shall be most happy if you will draw upon us for any——"

"!!!!"

"My noble boy, she is yours! She'll be here in a moment! Take her—marry her—love her—be happy! God bless you both! Hip, hip, hur——"

"COME IN!!!!!"

"Oh, George, my own darling, we are saved!"

"Oh, Mary, my own darling, we are saved—but I'll swear I don't know why nor how!"

One of a group of American gentlemen reads and translates from the weekly edition of Il Slangwhanger di Roma as follows:

"!—Some six months ago Signor John Smitthe, an American gentleman now some years a resident of Rome, purchased for a trifle a small piece of ground in the Campagna, just beyond the tomb of the Scipio family, from the owner, a bankrupt relative of the Princess Borghese. Mr. Smitthe afterwards went to the minister of the Public Records and had the piece of ground transferred to a poor American artist named George Arnold, explaining that he did it as payment and satisfaction for pecuniary damage accidentally done by him long since upon property belonging to Signor Arnold, and further observed that he would make additional satisfaction by improving the ground for Signor A., at his own charge and cost. Four weeks ago, while making some necessary excavations upon the property, Signor Smitthe unearthed the most remarkable ancient statue